Data center network using circuit switching

摘要

A circuit-based digital communications network is provided for a large data center environment that utilizes circuit switching in lieu of packet switching in order to lower the cost of the network and to gain performance efficiencies. A method for transmitting data in such a network comprises sending a setup request for a path for transmitting the data to a destination node and then speculatively sending the data to the destination node before the setup request is completed.

主权项

1. A data center comprising:
a first switch of a first network, wherein the first switch is configured to use circuit-switching for routing data between an inward-facing portion of the first network and an outward-facing portion of the first network, wherein the data is formatted in a repeating frame format, and wherein each frame of the repeating frame format comprises a plurality of control slots and a plurality of data slots; and a plurality of servers communicatively coupled to the first switch via the inward-facing portion of the first network, wherein the plurality of servers are interconnected to each other on a second network, and wherein the second network is configured to use bandwidth reservation for transporting data to and from the first switch of the first network, wherein the data center is capable of sending a setup request for a path for transmitting the data to a destination node in the first network, and speculatively sending, separate from the setup request, the data through the first network to the destination node before the setup request is completed, and wherein the destination node does not respond to the setup request if it accepts the setup request and receives the speculatively sent data, and wherein the destination node responds to the setup request, the setup request is killed, and a tear down message is received if the destination node does not accept the setup request.